Heretofore, there have been proposed absorbent articles, e.g. a disposable diaper shown in FIG. 7 schematically showing essential parts of the diaper in which an absorbent member 22 is attached to the skin-side surface of an outer sheet 21, and base ends 23a, 23a of raisable flaps 23, 23 are bonded to lateral sides on the top surface of the absorbent member 22, respectively (see WO94/28840; Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Tokuhyo) No. 8-510940).
The raisable flaps 23 disclosed in the above publication are adapted to prevent lateral leakage of urine and other body exudates by providing the free ends 23b which are rendered raisable from the folded line shown by the solid line a in FIG. 7 (see the two-dotted dashed line b in FIG. 7).
The above absorbent article is produced by applying a hot melt adhesive c at certain portions on the upper surface of the absorbent member 22 while feeding the absorbent member 22 at a high speed and by bonding the base ends 23a of the folded raisable flaps 23 to the adhesive portions of the absorbent member 22 to thereby bond the base ends 23a of the raisable flaps 23 to the upper surface of the absorbent member 22.
In the above production process, it is difficult to apply the hot melt adhesive c precisely at the predetermined portions. Specifically, let's presume a case that the hot melt adhesive c is applied to a portion (see the portion c′ in FIG. 7) on the upper surface of the absorbent member 22 transversely inside relative to an inner edge of the base end 23a of the raisable flap 23. In such a case, if the inner edge of the free end 23b in a folded state of the raisable flap 23 is disposed inside relative to the inner edge of the base end 23a, it is highly likely that the free end 23b may be adhered to the upper surface of the absorbent member 22 by the adhesive portion c′. As a result, the adhered free end 23b cannot be rendered raisable, thereby failing to effectively prevent lateral leakage of urine and other body exudates.
The above mentioned drawback should be considered in connection with the following cases other than the above arrangement in which the base ends 23a of the raisable flaps 23 are bonded to the upper surface of the absorbent member 22. The other cases include an arrangement in which raisable flaps are bonded to the skin-side surface of an outer sheet at lateral sides of an absorbent member, and an arrangement in which an outer sheet includes a liquid impermeable back sheet and a top sheet having a smaller width than the back sheet with an absorbent member interposed between the back sheet and the top sheet, and base ends of waterproof or water repellent raisable flaps are bonded to the top sheet and the back sheet at lateral sides of the absorbent member.
In view of the above problems residing in the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an absorbent article capable of effectively preventing lateral leakage of urine and other body exudates by constantly and securely raisable free ends of raisable flaps.